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March 2017 has been yet another exciting period in the world of marketing and branding. We’ve seen the launch of the Facebook Awards, as well as a stunning rebrand from one of the biggest music events in the UK - the V Festival.

Let’s explore!

1. The Facebook Awards

It’s award season yet again as Facebook welcome back their annual Facebook Awards! This year there’s been a change, and the social media platform are focusing they their entries on emotions. So, marketers, if you think you’ve got a killer campaign that’ll impress, either on Facebook or Instagram, it could be time to get the recognition you deserve.

The awards will be split into five categories, each one focusing on the different emotions generated from viewing the campaigns. They are as follows:

Laugh - Campaigns that have made them ‘LOL’

Cry - The work that made them emotional

Wow - Campaigns that wowed and showed something they’d never seen before

Love - Campaigns that made them fall in love with a brand

Act - Work that made us get up and ‘act’.

It’s a great way to approach judging campaigns because each one has the ability to change the way we feel about something in the world. So if you think you have a campaign that made people, laugh, cry, or feel inspired, then click here for more information. We wish you the best of luck! Who knows, the pixels, might even enter a few...

2. V Festival rebrand

Everyone’s heard of the V Festival - it’s one of the biggest musical festivals in the UK. Launched by Virgin, it brings together some of the most popular names in music for a huge show in Chelmsford.

This year, they’ve launched a brand new, energetic look that instantly captures the eye. The new, playful font has been influenced by ‘fairground’ and ‘circus’ styles, and features a popping tropical palette - as well as the instantly recognised Virgin red. This is matched along new, bespoke letter forms as we wave goodbye to the previous, loopy, handwritten font style the brand used since the 80’s - and the result really is something special!

Don’t worry though, they’ve still kept the famous ‘V’ tick! Rumour has it that a young designer scribbled this on a napkin for Richard Branson - and he loved it so much that he put it all over his brand.

3. The Road To Resilient Web Design

How many websites have you worked on, only to look back and wish you’d done something different at the end of it?

Smashing Magazine have been discussing this very topic lately, and they’ve been reflecting on how important it is to analyse your work post-project in order to move forwards and improve. It’s a tactic we’ve even been applying ourselves when reflecting on our recent website design with Silver Bay Holiday Village.

The article on their website is taking from Jeremy Keith’s web design book, and the extract provides fantastic insight into a new way of thinking. Discussing everything from Dao web design to web design tools - it’s a bible for Web Designers worldwide, and will provide a new way of thinking.

4. Snapchat Spectacles

Wearable technology has been promising to be the next big thing for a while now, and with brands like Snapchat jumping on board, it doesn’t look set to die off anytime soon.

Enter Snapchat Spectacles. The social media platform has developed a stylish pair of sunglasses that films your day whilst you’re out and about. It provides a pretty unique POV which you can see in the video below:

This new feature is a great way for brands to tell stories and makes it easier than ever before to add a spark of personality. With this in mind, The Drum have published an article that will help brands make the most of this new avenue. Don’t miss out on experimenting with the new Snapchat technology, your millennial customers will love you for it.

5. Twitter’s Paid Membership

The face of social media could quickly be changing if Twitter have their way - and it’s all because Twitter have announced that they are debating launching a paid membership option.

Targeting businesses and power users, paying for Twitter would allow users access to an enhanced version of Tweetdeck.

With a focus on improved analytics and signalling tools such as alerts, the dashboard could be a great way for Twitter-savvy users to better manage their platform. But will it be worth it when users at the target level for this package are already using the likes of Buffer and Sprout Social to manage their accounts? Let us know your thoughts on this new update and whether it’s destined to fail before it even gets off of the ground.

That’s all for now - check back next week for the latest industry trends.

We love a good bit of brand consistency at pixel8.And whether we use it to come up with clever little brand guidelines, or perhaps apply it...

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